Car adapted for subway use.



A. B. DU PONT. CAR DAPTED FOR SUBWAY USE. APPLICATION FILED APR. 7,1909.

Patented M114, 1910.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

OOO:

Wm/5555i uNTOINE B. DU PONT, 0E CLEVELAND, OHIO.

`CAR' ADAPTED ER SUBWAY USE.

Specification o1 Letters Patent.

application med April 7, 1909. serial Ng, 488,437.

To all whom 'it may concern:

Be it known that I, ANTOINE B. DU PONT, a citizen of the United States,residlng at Cleveland, in the county of n State of Ohio, have invented acertain new and useful improvement in Cars Adapted for Subway Use, ofwhich lthe following is a full, clear, and exact description.

r)The present invention relates to cars especially adapted for subwaypurposes,-tliat 1s 'to say, which derive their main value from thosecharacteristic features of constructionlwhich are of marked utility inconnection with subways, although the same cars are quite capable ofoperating elsewhere.

lThe object pf the invention has been to provide a cary capable of beingconstructed so as to carry as great a number of passen gers as theordinary subway car but having characteristics making it unnecessary fora subway in which it is used to have those large dimensions which havehitherto been considered unavoidable, thus making it possible to installsubway service in localities and communitiesotherwise unable to affordit.

With the construction` of car described below it will be seen that asubway for its use could be placed with its floor about eight oreight-and one-half feet below the surface of the ground, and the totalinterior height of the tunnel, away from the stations, need be onlyabout six feet'. The importance ot' this fact will be apparent at oncein considering thevmere savin in excavation even assuming the width othe tunnel to b e` the same as is now customary and the excavationto bemade in the usual manner; but, the construction of car which I describebelow is one which can, without diminishing the carrying capacity forvseated passengers, be made of a width substantially no greater than thewidth of the standard gage track employed and thus permit acorresponding reduction in the actual width and cost of excavation ofthe tunnel. Furthermore, such a tunnel, the bottom of vwhich is nofarther below the street level than stated, need not be made as tunnelsare usually made, but may be dug as an ordinary ditch, the ditch beingafterward covered over with I-beams or rein4 forced concreteconstruction for receiving paving or the surface roadbed. ln addition tothis last named advantage, and also as a consequence of the floor levellbeing so near the surface, the lateral pressure at the bottoni of theside walls and the upward pres- Cuyahoga and sure from the floor due tothe mass of earth about such a subway will obviously be much less thanwould be the case in the ordinary subway where the tioor liesfa'rbeneath the surface of the ground, and consequently the great costof thickwall and floor construction for resistin lateral and upwardpressure is decrease In other words, the car which I have invented is ofgreat importance considering the ossibilities which it brings to subwayinstal ation in permitting the engineer to work within limits of spaceand cost hitherto considered absolutely impossible and permitting citiesto have rapid transit where it might otherwise be forever unattainable.

A detail description of the structure is had in the followingspecification with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure l is a side elevation of a car construc'ted in accordance withthe general principlev of my invention. Fig. isan end view of twocars inthe subway` the tracks being in each case shown as shifted to one sideas might be advantageous in turning curves. Fig. lis a'detail top planof a`car end partly broken away to show the arrangement of :eats withinthe car. Fig. el. is an enlarged :ectional elevation showing one ofthe'supiorting plate grders, the seats beingomitted. Fig. 5 isanenlarged vertical cross section .llrough the .car at the point where thedoors are located. Y i

y The cal' as an entirety it will comprises a passenger carrying havingan interior height of no greater than normal amounh'and two trucks B B,one at each end, between which trucks the entire passenger carrying bodyis hung.' The supporting connections between the trucks and the body areprojecting .brackets of either truss type C or equivalent plate girderconstruction C having the compression section attached tothe car bodynear the upper end be vseen thereof, the advantage of this constructionvPatented Jan. 4i., i910. y

to the trackway D,

the passenger seats A2 being at the normal Y height above the A3 bein@lowered as much as the floor, thus saving fionl the total heightof thecar substantially the entire height of the trucks.

The Species of my invention which l have floor and the ceiling or rooftween each pair.

here shown embodies an arrangement in which the seats extendtransversely from side to side, arranged in pairs facing each other withsliding doors in the side of the car be- VVith this arrangement no aislespace whatever need be provided and the ingress and egress of the numberof passengers occupying each pair of seats may be rapidlyeftectedthrough the entrance provided. By adopting this feature the carbody may be made of a width not substanof prior construction.

tial greater than that of the standard gage track and accommodate pleupon each seat, this being the number carried in two transverse seatsextending from the sides to the aisle in an ordinary car VvVith thisnarrow passengers may find their way to the exterior end of eachcompartwidth the and from ment quickly and without difficulty even' 4shouldV those seats in the compartment near the open door to b eoccupied. To bring the trucks within the ldesired limits their journalsBf are placed inside the wheels and the axles terminate substantiallyflush with the exterior face of the wheels. -The body can thus be madeof a width substantially the .distance between the outside faces ofoppo- 4feature referred to is one in which the supporting members of thecars are of plate girder or truss construction with a large number oftransverse passageways distrib uted along the length between the maintension member A4 and the main compression member A5 of the support. Thetruss or plate girder either terminates in or is securely connected tothe above described bracket projections C or C which extend beyond thecar body and rest on the truck. This combination of structural featurescnables me to make a car of great length without danger and entirelypractical in operation, the car being filled and emptied, as a matter offact, far more quickly than would -be the case'with a much shorter carhaving the doors at the ends over the trucks.

In the first part of the specification reference was nitide to the factthat the projecting `brackets formed a particularly advantageouscombination with the rest of the construction of the car. From the abovedescription it is thought that this advantage has been made plain, sinceby the use as many as four peo' possible; but I would have it shearedoff from its supports, notwithstand# ing the fact that it is hungentirely between I the trucks. A further'advantage of these projectionsbeyond the car body lies in the fact thatby such construction the trucksand the motors thereon are exposed and easily accessible for suchattention as they may need. j

It will thus be seen that I have attained the object of invention soughtand .have produceda car capableof receiving and carrying the ordinaryload of passengers in a practical manner on an ordinary standard gagetrack, in a subway which can obviously be installed within limits ofcostwhich have heretofore been considered imclearly under-A stood thatthe roof' of my car is dropped as much asithe floor, so that the entirebody is at most of no greater interior height than the ordinary car andhangs entirely between the trucks from which it is supported by'projections from each end. It is only by this means that the full objectofm'y invenn tion can be attained and my inventive idea.

can become of value, this that the tunnel far beyond any known,

I do not pretend to be the inventor or originator of all of the elementsof consince it is by reason of maybe made shallow constructions hithertothem having been previously used elsewhere but in different arrangementsand combinations. I have endeavored to point out that struction which Ihave here shown, some of in the cases where these old elements enter vinto my claims it is the novel combination alone that I consider my own,

Having thus described my invention, I claim: f

l. A railway passenger car comprising two trucks and a passengercarrying body having an interior height no greater than thel normalamount and seats therein at a nor mal distance above its Hoor, theentire length of the said body being hung between the trucks byprojecting brackets pivotally mounted on the trucks, said bracketsprojecting forward from the roof and also attached to the body below theroof, the Hoor lowered to be in close proximity to the track and theroof lowered as much as the floor.

2. A railway passenger car comprising end thereof.'

two trucks and a passenger carrying body having an interior height nogreater than the normal amount and seats therein at a normal distance.above its floor, the entire length of the said body being hung betweenthe trucks by projecting brackets pivotally v mounted on the trucks,said brackets projecting forward from to the body below prising a girderconstruction in which the main compression member 'extends along theroof of the body, a projecting bracket of the plate girder or truss typeextending beyond the body at each end andv resting upon a truck, onesection of the bracket being attached to the body of the car near theupper 4. A railway passenger car comprising a passen er carrying body,the entire `length of which body hangs between two trucks with the floorin close proximity to the track, a supporting frame for the said bodycom- -prising a girder construction in which the main compression memberextends along the roof of the body and in which there are several'transverse passageways distributed along the length of the supportbetween the main compression and tension members, a projecting bracketextending .beyond the body at each endand resting upon a truck, onesection of the bracket being attached to -the body. of. the. car nearthe upper end thereof.

, 5. A railway passenger car comprising a passenger carrying body havingan interiorheight rio-greater than the normal amount,

. roof,

the entire length of which body is hung be tween two trucks andsupported therefrom by projecting brackets extending om the body andpivotally mounted on the'trucks, said brackets projecting forward fromthe i roof and also attached to the body below the the body floorlowered to be in close proximity to the track and the roof lowered asmuch as' the door, seats in the car extending transversely the entirewidth thereof and Va plurality of entrances through the side of the bodydistributed along the length thereof between the transverse seats.

t3. A railway passenger car comprising two trucks and a passengercarrying body hung entirely between the trucks `with the floor in closeproximity to the track, having an interior height of no greater thannormal amount and of substantially the same width as the distancebetween the outside faces of the wheels, the seats therein extendin@across the entire width of the body and a plurality of entrances throughthe side of the body between tlie seats.

7. A railway passenger car comprising two trucks and a passengercarrying body of an interior heightno greater than thenorinal an'iou'nthung entirely between the trucks and of substantially the vsaine widthas the distance-between the outside faces of the wheels, seats thereinextending across Ithe entire width of the body, a plurality of entrancesthrough th side of the body betweenl the floor of the bodyv beinglowered the seats, to close proximity to the track and the-rooflowered'as much as the Hoor, the body being supported from the trucks bybrackets extending beyond the body at each end thereof.

In testimony whereof, I hereunto atix my lsignature in the presenceofvtwo witnesses.

ANTOINE i3. DU Pour.

Witnesses: J. M. WooDwARD H., R.SULL1VAN.

